Congress MP Manish Tewari on Thursday cast a spell of doubt over job creation through Air India’s new deals and said there is nothing to celebrate as the orders will not create any manufacturing or other jobs in India. Most of these aircraft buys ae replacements for old aircraft and not a fleet augmentation, the Congress MP claimed and cited Air India’s downsizing to back his argument. Read | Air India-Airbus-Boeing deal was sealed with dinner at luxury Indian restaurant
The Congress leader was dismissed as a ‘naysayer’ by Twitter users while information and broadcasting department advisor Kanchan Gupta cited figures to refute Manish Tewari’s claims. “Current Air India fleet size is 113 planes. The order is for 470 new planes. Simple maths suggests 470>113. Even if all existing planes were to be replaced, Air India would still need to hire staff for 357 planes. Staff for 470 planes> staff for 113 planes,” Gupta tweeted.
The exchange did not end there as the Congress leader asked the reason behind Air India’s “aggressive” downsizing. “If you are rapidly ramping up capacity, you need experienced people to run an upscaled operation. Trajectory is in reverse. For their employee to aircraft ratio is adverse. More aircraft’s will not mean more jobs,” the Congress leader said.
Air India has placed an order of 840 aircraft from irbus and Boeing. Out of these, 47o are aircraft, 370 options and purchase rights to be procured from Airbus and Boeing over the next decade. The agreement between Boeing and Air India includes options for 50 additional 737 MAXs and 20 787-9s. When finalised, this will be the most significant Boeing order in South Asia and a historic milestone in the aerospace company’s nearly 90-year partnership with the carrier.
The Air India-Boeing deal will support over one million American jobs across 44 states, US President Joe Biden’s statement issued on the deal said.
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